Bibo: Employee's job goes up in smoke

Sunday

Mar 1, 2009 at 12:01 AMMar 1, 2009 at 12:04 AM

These days, any little thing can get you fired.

Just ask Curtis Kelley. He was issued off the premises at Caterpillar Inc.'s Mossville plant for smoking a cigarette - outside - on Jan. 12. This was after 10 years as a good employee, just weeks before he was supposed to be laid off anyway. Now he lives without a paycheck in the Morton home where he cares for his terminally ill mother.

TERRY BIBO

These days, any little thing can get you fired.

Just ask Curtis Kelley. He was issued off the premises at Caterpillar Inc.'s Mossville plant for smoking a cigarette - outside - on Jan. 12. This was after 10 years as a good employee, just weeks before he was supposed to be laid off anyway. Now he lives without a paycheck in the Morton home where he cares for his terminally ill mother.

"This is making me out like I'm a scumbag," says the soft-spoken former parts runner. "Firing me for smoking and denying my unemployment."

Curtis Kelley is not the kind of guy who makes news regularly.

At 18, according to newspaper files, he was charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest when police were called after a fight. At 42, he may have saved a kid's life by calling police himself. A 3-year-old had been left crying in a parked car in the middle of the night when the temperature was 11 degrees.

Now 52, Curtis Kelley is going public only to warn the remaining workers of the world: Watch your back. This economy is rough and getting rougher.

"I actually didn't expect this," he says. "I hadn't had any problems with them in 10 years. I was almost gone. I didn't expect something as dirty as that."

Kelley does not claim he has lived a spotless life. He did some drinking. But he has been clean and sober for more than a decade, quitting a few months before he went to work at Gray Interplant Systems, which contracts workers in Caterpillar facilities. The job enabled him to rent a small home on a dead-end street in Morton where he can care for his mother, Barbara, who has emphysema. He says the rest of the family has died or moved away.

"This is what I've been doing the last 11 years," he says. "I've been trying to make amends for my life."

For the most part, despite health problems both mother and son have suffered, he says this set-up worked fine until last summer. Then Caterpillar went smoke-free.

"When they first did it, you couldn't even smoke on their property," he said. "Even in your car, at lunch."

Kelley said he got written up for smoking last July. He didn't take it too seriously. For one thing, there were supposed to be several steps to the process. For another, the process kept changing. It didn't seem like anybody else took it too seriously either.

After the first push, smoking was allowed outside, on breaks and lunch and off-work hours. Then it was allowed before and after shifts and during lunch. Then it was just allowed at lunch. First the policy was three strikes and you're out. Then the policy was one strike and out.

"The company also has changed its policies three or four times since last June," said United Auto Workers 974 President Rick Doty.

Several UAW workers got suspended for smoking, but the union has contract language that allows it. Gray voted down unionization twice. Its contract workers are subject to anything Caterpillar wants, Doty said.

And the ever-changing rules are not evenly enforced, particularly for supervisors, according to some of those who still work at Mossville.

"They pretty much look the other way when they want to; lower the boom when they want to," says an employee who'd rather not be named. "I feel so bad for Curtis."

On Jan. 12, the line shut down late in the evening. With no work to do and 45 minutes before the end of his shift, Kelley went outside for a smoke. He lit up, and a couple of people he didn't know caught him.

"They gave me a 'perp walk,' " he says. "I had two supervisors walk me out."

That's harsh.

Todd Gray of Gray Interplant did not respond to repeated phone calls over the last couple of weeks. Caterpillar Inc. spokesman Jim Dugan said the company could not discuss actions related to a contract worker and re-released its no-smoking statement from last summer.

"We remain dedicated to creating and maintaining the healthiest and safest work environment possible for our employees," it said.

With so little explanation forthcoming, Kelley asked for his entire personnel file, as he is entitled to do by law. And the files back him up.

Gray had two or three inches worth of paper documenting Curtis Kelley. That includes everything from doctor's notes to the results of mandatory drug tests to his vacation requests. It notes the times he had to take leave for surgeries for colon cancer and other problems, the time a Caterpillar worker ran into his forklift with a go-cart, and the many times he took unpaid leave to help his mother with her medical problems. (There was even a note to show he was an hour late when he took her to the doctor once.)

The file included the congratulatory letter for a 1999 gift certificate at Alexander's Steakhouse after a supervisor said "the one person that helped us out the most in getting the job done was Curtis." And it held repeated performance evaluations where he was ranked as "very good" or "outstanding."

"Curtis works very neat and accurate" said the most recent evaluation from last September. He "works at a good pace" and "has extensive knowledge" and is "very reliable." He "works with little supervision," "follows all procedures," "can work with anyone" and "shows good judgment and decision-making skills."

Up until that last-minute, ill-advised smoke.

"We have found it necessary to terminate your employment with Gray Interplant Systems, Inc. on 1/12/09 for deliberate acts of misconduct related to your work: Smoking on a non-designated break," said a letter from Gray Human Resource Manager Kevin Gann. "STATEMENT OF FACTS - On 1/12/09 you were found smoking during a non-designated break allowed for smoking. This goes against customer and company policy."

On that basis, Curtis Kelley's unemployment was denied. He has appealed. Under the circumstances - particularly if firing him also means lower costs for his former employer - perhaps an administrative law judge will rebalance the scales of justice. This is not right.